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West Virginia wind farm project stopped to protect endangered bat

Work on a West Virginia wind power project has been halted by a federal
judge who sided with environmentalists' claim that the project would
harm an endangered bat.

U.S. District Judge Roger Titus issued
the order Tuesday, citing potential harm to the federally endangered
Indiana bat.

John Stroud, co-chairman of one of the
environmental groups that filed the lawsuit, Mountain Communities for
Responsible Energy, said group members were "really delighted with the
ruling."

"We've been working on this for a while and the judge
saw things our way, and we're really pleased," said Stroud, a rare book
dealer who owns a farm a mile and a half from the wind power site.

The Washington-based Animal Welfare Institute and the Williamsburg,
W.Va.-based Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy sued
Rockville-based Beech Ridge Energy and its parent, Invenergy LLC. The
plaintiffs claimed the 119-turbine Beech Ridge project in Greenbrier
County, W.Va., violated the federal Endangered Species Act because the
wind farm was likely to kill and injure endangered Indiana bats and the
developers had not obtained an incidental take permit from the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. Such permits are required when landowners,
companies, state or local governments build projects that might harm
wildlife that is listed as endangered or threatened.

An
attorney for the developers, Clifford Zatz, said in his opening
arguments that the lawsuit had put the $300 million, environmentally
responsible, renewable energy project in "limbo" because of an untested
hypothesis "over a rare bat that no one has ever seen at the site."

Titus ordered Beech Ridge and its Chicago-based parent to stop building
turbines until it gets a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. The judge also barred the company from operating any of the 40
existing turbines between April 1 and Nov. 15, when the bats are
migrating.

Invenergy attorney Joe Condo said the company
"continues to be committed to the Beech Ridge project and bringing
clean renewable energy to West Virginia."

"As ordered by the
judge, we will approach the Fish and Wildlife Service and begin the
Incidental Take Permit process so that we can complete the project,"
Condo said in a statement. "We are very optimistic that the permit will
be granted and the project can reach its full potential."

Plaintiffs' attorney Eric Glitzenstein said the ruling sends the
important message "that while renewable energy is important, compliance
with the Endangered Species Act is equally important and that there is
a right way to develop these projects and a wrong way. The wrong way is
to commit yourself to a project and go full steam ahead without making
sure you know what the adverse impacts are, particularly when an
endangered species is concerned."